1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to valves and motors and, more particularly, relates to valves and motors for dispensing flowable products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automated food dispensers greatly increase the ease and speed with which patrons can be served, while at the same time ensuring quality standards are met and repeatable. Fast food restaurants and cafeterias heavily rely on such dispensers to meet the needs of their diners in a cost effective and timely manner.
One example is a milkshake dispenser. With conventional milkshake dispensers, a spinner or other type of mechanical mixer is provided within a dispensing nozzle. The mixing chamber is fluidically connected to a supply of ice cream and one or more flavoring syrups. A spinner motor is operatively connected to the spinner such that upon energizing, the spinner mixes the ice cream and flavoring.
To control flow through the dispensing nozzle, a draw valve is often employed. Such a valve may have a valve body within which a valve stem reciprocates. In order to control movement of the valve stem, convention milkshake dispensers typically use a solenoid actuator or linear actuator. The draw valve may have a top plate to which a plunger of the solenoid is attached. The plunger itself is adapted to reciprocate with a coil housing of the solenoid. However, as the spinner motor is typically mounted in axial alignment with the draw valve, the solenoid actuator has heretofore had to be mounted in offset fashion relative to the longitudinal axis of the draw valve. While effective, this results in the undesirable moment in the system that creates a side load on the solenoid, particularly between the outer diameter of the solenoid plunger and the inner diameter of the coil housing. This in turn results in increased wear and decreased serviceable life of the solenoid.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for an improved dispenser for flowable products, particularly automated milkshake dispensers.